Pain Management By Mary Jane

Since 2004 I have taken many avenues looking for pain relief. And what I've found truly ironic is that what the health care professionals, as well as individuals outside the system, have the biggest issue with is methods of pain relief. The fact is that what makes life most difficult for anyone with a disability is not necessarily the disability itself but the side effects and, most often, the pain and suffering it causes. American culture doesn't like suffering. We are a self-indulgent culture and we don't like to be bothered or interrupted while we are going about our business. Because Americans are a self-abusive and addictive people those who don't have real pain abuse most anything they are giving to help relieve even the most minor pain. Consequently, those who do suffer chronic and/or severe pain pay the price. In other words, psychically damaged people abuse medicines designed for those who suffer with concrete physical pain.

I have used cigarettes, alcohol, food, Vicodin and Ibuprofin to combat my pain. All of these are legal but they all have terrible side effects when abused. In fact, using them can actually make a disabled person worse than they already are. However, I had never used anything that is considered "illegal." I had never used "drugs." But when the HMO and the medical system was no longer willing to work with me and provide me with the pain management I need, I went outside the system and investigated "herbal" treatments.

In my need to find relief and be functional while my body continues to rebel against my mind and my need to be productive, I have become even more radical and liberal than I already was! The reality that I am disabled, that I am a minority who is not allowed by the health care/corporate/political system to seek those means necessary to make me live as healthy a life as I can, has put me on the fringe and made my choice controversial.

How many disabled and suffering Americans live outside these forward thinking states and are forced to take poorly managed and highly dangerous drugs to relieve their pain? I don't know what if anything I can personally do to reach out and give hope to others who suffer, but I sure as hell am going to try. And I have come to realize that my creative gifts born from my disabilities are a means to that end.